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SATURDAY, DEC. 18, 1920.
THE TOILBB
PAGE II
movement of a number of men influenced by the
Anarchist doctrines of European Syndicalism,
who wished to foist upon us such purely ideal,
abstract things as, "local autonomy," "decentral
ization." We have found that those who draw
their, revolutionary inspiration from the Bakunist
doctrines are blind and deaf to the iron facts of
industrial development and the history of class
struggles.
The I. W. W. was founded by men who had
studied and understood the great labors of Karl
Marx. And it is upon the discoveries of that gen
ius that our theory was built up. Not that we
are Marxian dogmatists, but we insist upon the
spirit of Marxian teaching: we insist upon the
foundation of our ideas upon the rock bottom
of ECONOMIC FACT, and not upon high-sounding
"libertarian" theory.
I believe that it was absolutely necessary for
the Soviet Government to confine certain "An
archist" and "Anarcho-Syndicalist" idealistic
noise-makers. I believe it because I know it has
been absolutely necessary in the I. W. W. to re
press the disrupting activities of similar types.
The writer of the article calls for "democracy''
in Russia. He joins there with the critics of the
bourgeois press, who howl about the lack of de
mocracy in Soviet Russia. It is well to have de
mocracy if you can afford it. But, in the period
oftransition, when the government of the work
ers of Russia and nc one can dispute that the
Soviet Government is supported by the majority
of the Russian workers is engaged in fighting
a desperate capitalist class within, and a ring of
capitalistic powers without, can we expect it to
act without regard to facts, according to the
dictates of some pink-dreamed abstract concep
tion of "democracy"? Even as it is, there is more
democracy m Russia than in any other country
in the world. If the Soviet government only rep
resents seventy per cent of the population, and
has thirty per cent opposed to it, it comes nearer
to being popular government than any that has
existed in the world's history. In the rest of the
world's countries, the governments represent
about ten per cent, and ignore ninety per cent!
Whether we like it or not, the eyes of the workers
of the world are directed towards the great ex
periment of the Russian Soviet Republic. Whether
it square with our preconceived theories of how
revolutions should be made, or whether it be, or
not, the method we believe in for other countries, -Ihe
Russian Revolution js a Great Fact. And the
masses of the world are looking towards it for
light and encouragement. Hemmed in by enemies,
villified by the reptile press of all lands, lied about,
misrepresented and abused; fought with the
arms, ammunition and money of the great capital
istic powers; a prey to starvation and want;
Soviet Russia still stands heroically working at
her mighty task of creating a Workers Republic,
an Industrial Commonwealth. For, it must be re
membered, the Bolsheviks have never said that
the present government of Russia is the ideal
one, the final one. In everything Lenin and his
iriends have written, they have stated that the
Dictatorship of the Proletariat is but a temporary
affair which shall continue until the transference
of the means of production and distribution, from
the control of the capitalist to that of the work
ers, shall have been completed.
Shall we then join in this chorus of abuse;
shall we swl the yelping of the bourgeois press?
Personally, f can only say that I think the atti
tude of our organization towards the struggling
revolution of Russia should be that of whole
hearted encouragement and fraternity. And I, for
one, shall not let the appeal of the "Comrade
Emigrant Doctor" and his fair wife, from an un
known place, change my present viewpoint. I shall
need far more proof than the appeals of a few of
our Anarchists friends, before I believe that, as
this article remarks, "we fail to see the difference
between the Lenin-Trotzky regime in Russia and
the Wilson-Palmer-Burleson regime in America."
In fact, I think nothing would more delight the
enemies of the workers' movement anywhere than
to read such a remark in our organ. And that is
why I have written this article.
I do not want to suffer the shame of having
our official organ quoted by capitalist opponents
of Soviet Russia in support of their attacks. I do
not want to see our magazine quoted to the mili
tant workers of this country, when they refuse to
support the bandit-war against Russia, by refrain
ing from shipping munitions to the agents of the
White Terror.
I do not want the I. W. W. to be identified in
any way with, nor to give any aid to, the dirt7
trickery of the agents of international capitalism.
And I refuse to criticize the actions of the Soviet
Government in their counter-revolutionary steps